Boat Accident Kills Local Guitarist
"Bob Bielarz, a guitarist for the Chicago-based nu-metal band No One and who also played with cover bands in the Southland, was among the three boaters who died after their boat collided with a barge late Friday on the Calumet Saganashkee Channel," the SouthtownStarreports.

"The body of Bielarz, 39, of Orland Park, was recovered at 10 a.m. Monday about 11/2 miles west of the Worth boat launch, Illinois Department of Natural Resources spokesman Chris Young said.

"The bodies of his wife Viengsavanh Bielarz, 40, and their friend, Jeremy Muzika, 33, were recovered from the water Saturday afternoon, according to the Cook County Medical Examiner's office and the U.S. Coast Guard. Neither was wearing a life jacket, according to the Coast Guard. They died of drowning and multiple injuries after the boat collided with a 66-foot barge, an autopsy found Sunday."

By The Way, Which One's Earth?
"Verdine White thought he had it all planned," the Ottawa Citizenreports.

"He was all of 18, and saw a future in music ahead. 'I was going to make $50,000 a year in Chicago, find a little house, play in the classical world and maybe moonlight on weekends playing in cover bands,' White recalls.

"'But my plans got changed,' the bassist says.

"On June 6, 1970, White accepted his older brother's invitation to move to Los Angeles and play in his band. That older brother was Maurice White and that band was Earth, Wind & Fire, which was just getting started."

Straight Outta Elmhurst
"Just a few years ago, Mario Cuomo, 20, was a teen fresh out of York High School who couldn't get a job at Buffalo Wild Wings," My Suburban Lifereports.

"'It just kind of like played into my favor that I just had to work harder at this,' said The Orwells frontman, Cuomo, following the rock band's second appearance on Late Show with David Letterman in less than six months.

"The five York graduates, including Matt O'Keefe, cousins Dominic Corso and Cuomo, and the Brinner twins, Grant and Henry, performed at Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival in Tennessee last weekend and released a new album June 3 in the U.S. called Disgraceland, which aside from nodding at the King of Rock-n-Roll is also a commentary on the band's suburban roots.

"'That's where all the songs were made,' said Cuomo, who just moved to Chicago after the band's return from Bonnaroo."